Powderhorn Resort: Wild West Express Construction update

For much of the spring and summer, building the Wild West Express has meant digging holes, pouring concrete, moving dirt, and preparing for what comes next. Important work, all of it—but it still took a little imagination to look at a foundation and picture a high-speed quad.

That changed. Crews have begun installing the bottom—or return—terminal of the Wild West Express. The large terminal structure, freshly lettered and looking very much like a chairlift, was carefully hoisted into position and set onto the concrete foundation prepared over the past several weeks.

A quick bit of lift anatomy: the Wild West Express is a top-drive lift. The new terminal at the base is the return terminal, where chairs make the 180-degree cycle and begin heading back uphill. The drive machinery—the real muscle of the operation—will live in the top terminal, which is still being refurbished by our partners at Leitner-Poma in Grand Junction.

There’s plenty more taking shape. The bottom operator house foundation is complete, the 65,000-pound haul rope has arrived, and the spider excavator has finished digging difficult tower footer locations along the steep sections of the lift line.

Next up, helicopters return to fly footer forms into places that aren’t practical to reach from the ground. It’s another reminder of how many tools it takes to build one chairlift: excavators where you can drive, spider excavators where you can’t, and helicopters when even four mechanical legs aren’t enough.

There’s still a lot of work ahead, but the view from the base has changed considerably. You don’t have to look at drawings or survey stakes and imagine the Wild West Express anymore.